October 4, Hybrid Meeting

Present:

• Patrick White presided prior to appointment of Chair
• Jay Bikofsky
• Mark Mills
• Tom Sharp
• Andrea Lindsay, Executive Director, Stockbridge Housing Authority
• Also present Michael Canales

1. White called the meeting to order
2. Stockbridge Town Counsel wrote a guide to developing a Housing Trust Fund for the Town of Littleton (another of her clients). White suggested we refer to it as a template for developing our model.
3. Ultimate Goal: support affordable housing for the low- and moderate-income households in Town
4. White suggested that they read and digest the materials including the Littleton document, the Stockbridge Senor housing report, etc. — then meet again to begin deliberations
5. Use the $100,000 and match with private donors in area and perhaps state and federal grants.
6. Mark Mills asked if our zoning laws would be a challenge (he ran for office seeking to change zoning) and asked if zoning could be changed to incentivize building low-income housing.
   1. Others felt it was more a function of the marketplace.
   2. Bikofsky suggested helping with a down payment for the first-time home buyer would be more to the point because many have monthly payments but not cash for a down payment
   3. White suggested there are “corridors” (i.e., the land along Mass Pike) not conducive to building expensive housing but good for cost effective development and therefore cost-effective sales
7. Canales cautioned all members to be aware of the Open Meeting Law (OML) and its conditions. Email, for example, can only be used for information sharing and scheduling, and deliberating can only be done in public meetings not in private discussions or via emails.
8. Canales said, “We have had a few boards that have wandered off into deliberation; that is frowned upon, in fact, it is in violation of the law.” With a five-member board, Canales said, members can speak one to one, but a quorum can only deliberate in a public meeting, and members should not engage in serial communications. Canales will send around an email reminding everyone of these OML rules. White followed by reminding members to complete the Commonwealth Ethics training
9. Jay Bikofsky was named Chair and will schedule the next meeting

Meeting adjourned